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There’s nothing like a city snowstorm to really slow you down, in a good way. This piece over the weekend said it best: blizzards have a way of punishing the ambitious and rewarding indolence.

I took the cue and planned my own un-planned weekend (yes, I understand the irony here), starting with an old-fashioned sleepover with two of my closest girlfriends. Our agenda items: 1) wear sweatpants 2) be cozy in said sweatpant, 3) catch up with each other. (Carbs and Moscow Mules may/may not have been involved).

So you’re wondering about the above radishes? Well, when the girls left on Saturday to avoid a snow-in situation, I took to my watercolors, facing hours of (yay!) time at home.

Old art, circa 1985

New art, circa 2015

I returned to watercoloring this past year as a way of practicing my rendering, but also because I just really enjoy it. Fast forward, and my little furniture studies have given way to winter veggies. I started with a red onion, and while I still won’t eat them, I now I see them as beautiful, with just one of them showing several shades of some of the prettiest purples in nature.I moved on to sweet little bunches of baby carrots, then radishes, first putting down a light sketch before getting into the painting action. Note: time is not your friend when painting fresh produce (I now know). These puppies will wilt and change in front of your eyes if you don’t paint fast enough – a lesson in decisiveness and speed, both essential when watercoloring, which rewards both.

I’ve learned that painting, for me, isn’t about filling up free time with a hobby. “Totally” free time can be hard to come by when most days are composed of working, playing, learning, schooling, commuting, socializing, chore-ing, errand-running…and so on. So for me, it’s quite the opposite: painting is about loving something so much that I carve out the time to do it, often casting aside my to-do list in order to spend an hour or two brush-to-paper. So I chose to enjoy the swaths of free hours this weekend at home. While many of us were inconvenienced, I was – in fact – convenienced*. Lucky me.